Rep. Brian Harrison is also among a group of lawmakers criticizing the UT System for expanding the free tuition program.
DALLAS — Calling it “left-wing propaganda,” State Representative Brian Harrison, R-Waxahachie, said if any Texas public university offers “LGBTQ/Sexualities Studies” programs, he will try to zero out its budget.
“If they have an LGBTQ minor, that is an abuse of taxpayer funding never authorized by the legislature and as far as I’m concerned, there have got to be consequences,” the Republican told us on Inside Texas Politics.
Rep. Harrison is one of 11 state lawmakers who sent a letter to University of Texas System leaders criticizing its Board of Regents for offering free tuition to undergraduate students whose families earn less than $100,000 a year. The move by the UT System is an expansion of the Promise Plus endowment, allowing qualifying undergraduates to attend any of its nine academic institutions, tuition-free.
The previous standard, in 2019, created a $167 million endowment at UT Austin to cover tuition and mandatory fees for undergrad students from families with an adjusted gross income of $65,000 or less. In 2022, the UT System Regents offered a second endowment near $300 million to extend that program to all UT academic institutions in the state.
But Rep. Harrison argues the legislature, and only the legislature, can authorize and appropriate funds to be used in this manner, or as he put it, “a decision this consequential.”
And the Republican said there must be consequences, including cutting budgets and firing people.
“This is an absolutely outrageous abuse of power if the state of Texas is going to become more socialist than California, which is what we’re doing here,” he said.
One of the questions Harrison and the other lawmakers sent to the Board of Regents asked whether “LGBTQ/Sexualities Studies” are included in the free tuition plan.
He plans to file legislation that would zero out the budgets of any university president offering such programs.
“Public higher education in Texas is off the rails. The inmates are running the asylum,” said Harrison. “Let me tell you what this is, if you care about the protection of separation of powers as I do, this is an abuse of power because the legislature never voted on this.”
The Republican also told us that while he hopes there are enough votes to pass school choice in the 89th legislative session that starts in January, there are no guarantees.
“People who are saying that this is a done deal are either ignorant or they’re lying to you,” he said bluntly.
Harrison did acknowledge that Republicans have more votes than they’ve ever had. But he also argues the devil is in the details, and the school choice bills need to be much better than they were last session when none passed.
“They were not universal. They were financially irresponsible and reckless. We need to have a bill that’s done right,” argued the Republican. “Look, over 34 other states have already empowered their parents with some kind of school choice. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. We need to learn from the successes of other states.”